Thank You

Last year, when I went to Canada, I found a gorgeous print by a woman called Eli Fenger Benwell.  It is a silhouette of a papercut picture. It shows a whole host of children in an apple tree, and it is just lovely. It is simple. It is clean. It is graceful. It is a picture I have had framed, and even here in the MOD where there are not enough nails in the wall for all my art to hang up, I have made sure it is up on the wall.

I look at it every day, and every day it gives me pleasure.

I wrote about it at the time, and months afterwards I received a comment from Catherine Fenger Benwell, who is Eli’s daughter.  She had recently lost her mother, and had been googling her out of curiosity to see whether there was anything about her mother and her art on the internet, which is how she found me.

She offered me some of her mother’s other works, which was an entirely generous, kind and unexpected thing to do.

I said; ‘yes please’.

Today her parcel of prints arrived, all the way from Denmark.

I am so utterly touched by the grace and kindness of this woman I have never met.  It has gone a long way to redress the balance of all the horrible things that have happened to me this week.

But Catherine is not the only person to show me kindness and generosity. Far from it.

People often ask me why I blog.  They think that I am too incautious, that the world is a horrible place, filled with bad people and that talking to, and meeting with people you connect with on the internet can only lead to violent deaths and worse.  They have bought into the popular assumption, promoted by the newspapers and media that the internet is a breeding ground for pornographers, rapists and murderers, all waiting to do you in.

Well, there is a case for that, but in my experience it is a small percentage of the population who do and want to do these things, just like in real life.

Yes, there are people who write horrible comments in the comments box, but there are many, many more of you who write lovely, kind and supportive things. 

There are people who I have met from my blog writing who have turned into real life good friends, and who I am pretty sure will continue to  be so.  There are people who I have not yet had the chance to meet, who are also good friends and who I am pretty sure will continue to be so.

I have been astonished and privileged to have the friendship, support and goodwill of hundreds of people in the years I have been writing my blog. I have had gifts, and good wishes, and kind thoughts and random acts of generosity sent to me from all areas of the globe, at all times of the day and night, and I count myself truly blessed for everything that this blog has brought into my life.

So to Catherine, and all the rest of you who have thought of me, written to me, sent me things and extended your friendship, kindness and love towards me during the good times and the bad, this is for you.

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

And, as Tallulah would say:

From the bottom of my bottom.

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